I tried looking back on my experiences here, and I feel as though I dreamt it all up. A few weeks in Spain and then I will wake up one morning to find myself in my own bed back in my little white house with purple shutters in Pines Lake NJ—wondering if it actually happening. Or will it hit me that I was here! I did it!
I did my best to get a lot out of my few weeks left at Wroxton. I went to Stonehenge and visited London twice. Stonehenge was far better of an experience than the underground vaults in Edinburgh. I discovered that I feel a connection to the tangible world. Looking at the stones and wondering about the people who constructed this masterpiece helped me feel connected to mankind in a very special way. I get more by looking into our past than I ever would if I was looking for some form of otherworldly spirituality. It feels good to look at something my ancestors built and gain this great appreciation and sense of belonging to a history of tremendous achievement and marvel—like the very same feeling that came over that guy who, thousands of years ago, stood over an amber campfire and roared, “I AM MAN! I HAVE CREATED FIRE!”
The first time I went to London, Carrie and I spent the whole day at the London Zoo. It was an unbelievably gorgeous day. The zoo was also incredible. I saw the gorilla who actually taught Andy Serkis how to play Kong in the new King Kong movie. Apparently the two of them just spent time socializing and the female gorilla had fun showing the actor the ways of the gorilla. We also got to see giant bats from the Amazonian Rainforest. The second and final visit I spent the day in theatres. I saw Spamalot and Wicked. Spamalot was worth a few laughs but I wouldn’t suggest going to see it. Our school showed how ‘generous’ it is once again by purchasing seats as far away from the stage as possible… Wicked was a far better experience. It only cost ₤26 for the night show. I really loved it and highly recommend it. I saw another play a week or two earlier in Birmingham called Testing the Echo. It was interesting—about the citizenship test in England. Finding out what countries think is important for aspiring citizens to know is funny if not disturbing. Like, is it vital for every citizen to know when pubs open on Sunday???
I finished my papers and exams! I did worse on all of my papers by a whole marking. So if I got an A on the first paper for a course, my second one was an A- and so on. It was a little discouraging, but my grades were far from poor. The exams were really tough. I don’t really know what to think about them. I can guess which ones I performed better on but that is the best I can do. I think my best was CORE, which I hope is an A so I can get an A out of that course. My worst was probably Modern Novels which was the class I was doing the best in. That is the problem with these exams. They constitute 50% of my grade. So my A in that class good drop significantly because of the exam. A semester worth the work shot because of a 3 hour exam… Something’s a little off with that system.
Last week I went to the Banbury Beerfest. It was fun and I know can appreciate the horror of drinking warm beer…
I have just been trying to pass the time and enjoy myself these last few days… I am packing today and tomorrow I leave for Spain… I’ll try to get a blog or two up, but I definitely post again when I return.
Good-bye Wroxton…
